nai

Project Progress

This project entails modeling of the oxygen isotope history of the solar nebula, with the goals of understanding the meteorite record and placing constraints on solar system formation. I (Lyons) am funded primarily through the NASA Origins of Solar Systems program for this work, but last year was funded in part from Astrobiology as well.

Previously, I converted an atmospheric chemistry code to a solar nebula code, and performed oxygen isotope calculations at the cool surface of the disk. In the past year, I have started calculations in the hot, inner disk region, with the goal of evaluating the possibility of CO self-shielding near the inner edge of the disk (Clayton 2002). This work is still in progress, but preliminary results were presented at LPSC in March 2006.

Also during 2005, a book chapter on the topic of disk surface self-shielding (coauthor Ed Young) appeared, and an additional book chapter was accepted for publication.